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Kirk Robertson
Nevada Writers Hall of Fame 1994
Kirk Robertson (1946- ), a native of Los Angeles, is a poet, essayist, publisher, editor, and artist. He has lived in Nevada since 1976. His writings have appeared in numerous anthologies, journals and magazines. He received the Water Mark Breakthrough Award in 1985 for his book of illustrations, Ar*ti*facts.
Robertson is the founder, editor, and publisher of Scree magazine and Duck Down Press in Fallon, Nevada. He is involved with the Churchill County Arts Program, the Nevada State Council on the Arts, the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and is the current editor of neon, the art journal of the Nevada State Council on the Arts. His work is best described by his colleague and friend, William Fox, as following "the tradition of William Carlos Williams and Robert Creeley, the stresses of American life and language inextricably linked in a spare, unforgiving cadence...at their best his poems, won through years of painful life and thought and craft, take the heart out of you and offer it up to the clean desert sky."
Bibliography for Kirk Robertson
Poetry:
Asylum Picnic. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1980.
Barker, David and Robertson, Kirk. "No Deposit, No Return," in High Fallon, Southern Comfort. (Maelstrom Chapbook Series; 2). Long Beach, CA: Maelstrom Press, 1980. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3568 .O2494 H5]
Columbia Granger's World of Poetry. [Available: Library web site: Columbia Granger's World of Poetry; UNLV-affiliated users only] (not full-text; indexed)
Drinking Beer at 22 [i.e. Twenty-two Degrees] Below: Poems. (Series: Nausea Publications) Long Beach, CA: Russ Haas Press, 1976. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3568 .O2494 D7 1976]
Driving to Vegas: New & Selected Poems, 1969-87. Tucson: SUN/gemini Press, 1989. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3568 .O2494 D74 1989]
Field, Edward; Locklin, Gerald; and Charles Stetler, eds. "drawing to an inside straight" and "driving to Vegas" in A New Geography of Poets. Fayetteville, AK: Univ. of Arkansas Press, 1992. [Available: Western NV Community Clg., Fallon]
Five Card Stud. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1978.
Fox, William L., ed. Seven Nevada Poets. Reno, NV: University of Nevada, Reno, Black Rock Press, 1991. (Series: Rainshadow Editions) [Available: Getchell Library: PS 571 .N3 S38 1991]
"In Quiet Wandering," in Talisman. 8 & 9. Lincoln, NB: Talisman, 1975. (Member: COSMEP ~ Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers, Box 703 San Francisco, CA 94101.)
Indian Poems. Columbus, OH: Luna Bisonte Prods., 1976.
Just Past Labor Day: Selected & New Poems, 1969-1995. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1996. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3568 .O2494 J87 1996; and at Great Basin College and Western NV Community College-Carson City]
Matters of Equal Height: Poems. Reno: West Coast Poetry Review, 1987. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3568 .O2494 M3 1987]
The Mizpah Sonnet. Reno, NV: Black Rock Press, 1994. (Printed for his induction into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, 1994)
Music: A Suite & Thirteen Songs. Cedarville, CA: Floating Island Publications, 1995. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3568 .O2494 M87 1995]
Nevada. (Series: Road/house; 8) Belvidere, IL: Road/House Press, 1980. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 3568 .O2494 N4]
NorthSun, Nila and Robertson, Kirk. Coffee, Dust Devils, and Old Rodeo Bulls: Poems. [Fallon, NV]: self-published, 1979. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3568 .O2494 C6]
Origins, Initiations: Poems. Isla Vista, CA: Turkey Press, 1980. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3568 .O2494 O74]
Reasons and Methods: Poems. Grover City, CA: Rainbow Resin Press, 1980-1981. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 3568 .O2494 R4]
Serpa, Valerie and Robertson, Kirk. Shoes: Poems. Reno, NV: Black Rock Press, Univ. of Nevada, Reno, 1997. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 3569 .E73 S56 1997]
Shooting at Shadows, Killing Crows: Workings from Plains Winter Counts. [Marvin, SD]: Blue Cloud Quarterly, 1976. (Blue Cloud Quarterly, Vol. 22, no. 1) [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 3568 .O2494 S4]
Short, Gary and Smith, Roger, eds. The Nevada Poet: An Anthology. pp. 101-106. Fallon, NV: A Frosty Morning Press, 1981. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 571 .N3 N483 1981]
"Some Iroquois Chiefs," in Translations: Experiments in Reading b. (O.ARS 4: 2nd fascicle), p. 132. Cambridge, MA: O.ARS, 1983. [Available: Getchell Library: PN 6101 .T73 v. 2]
Sultry Afternoon with the Blinds Partly Pulled. San Francisco, CA: Lion's Breath Press, 1978.
"Sun Is Out," in Talisman. 8 & 9. Lincoln, NB: Talisman, 1975. (Member: COSMEP ~ Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers, Box 703 San Francisco, CA 94101.)
"Twisted Gnarled Wood," in Talisman. 8 & 9. Lincoln, NB: Talisman, 1975. (Member: COSMEP ~ Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers, Box 703 San Francisco, CA 94101.)
Two Weeks Off. Point Reyes Station, CA: Floating Island Publications, 1984. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3568 .O2494 T86 1984]
Under the Weight of the Sky. [Cherry Valley, NY]: Cherry Valley Editions, 1978. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3568 .O2494 U5]
Walked On By 40 Camels: Poems. (Series: RMCAJ Chapbooks) Casper, WY: Rocky Mountain Creative Arts Journal, 1977. [Available: Getchell Libbrary, Special Collections: PS 3568 .O2494 W3]
West Nevada Waltz: A Suite of Poems. [Isla Vista, CA]: Turkey Press, 1981. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 3568 .O2494 W47 1981]
Whiplash on the Couch. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1979.
Non-Fiction:
After the Drying Up of the Water. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1977. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: E 99 P2 A35; and Great Basin College, Elko]
CETA & the Arts in Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara, CA: Neighborhood Arts, 1978.
Editor:
Allen, Jo Harvey. Cheek to Cheek: Poems and Excerpts from Interviews. (Series: Windriver) Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1983. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 3551 L3939 C45 1983]
Bennett, John. Whiplash on the Couch. (Scree, no. 15-16)Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1979. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 580 .S37 no. 15-16 1979]
Fox, William L. Time by Distance. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1985. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 3556 .O95 T5 1985]
Fox, William L. Twenty-One, and Over. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1982. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 3556 .O95 T9]
Haslam, Gerald. The Wages of Sin. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1980.
Krapt, Norbert. East of New York City: Poems. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1986. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 3561 R274 E2 1986]
Masarik, Al. Nonesuch Creek: New & Selected Poems, 1969- '79. (A Windriver Book) Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1980. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3563 .A78 N6 1980]
New Works: An Anthology of Ten Contemporary Poets. (Windriver series) Duck Down Press, 1981.
NorthSun, Nila. Small Bones, Little Eyes. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1982. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 615 S55 1981]
Short, Gary. Looking Past Today. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1983. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 3569 H588 L6 1983]
Wagner, D. R. Crusin' at the Limit: Selected Poems 1968-78. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1982. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 3573 A38 A6 1982]
Illustrator & Book Arts:
Ar*ti*facts. Huntington, [Long Island, NY]: Water Mark Press, 1985. (Winner of Water Mark Breakthrough Award). [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3568 .O2494 A77 1985]
Hogan, Michael. The Broken Face of Summer. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1981. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3558 .O34727 B7 1981]
Masarik, Al. Excuses to Be Outside. (Series: A Windriver Book) Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1986. (Cover design by Kirk Robertson) [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3563 .A78 E9 1986]
Murphy, Sheila E. Tommy and Neil. SUN/Gemini Press, 1993.
Yurkievich, Saul. Translations, "A". O. A R S, 1983.
Publisher:
Fox, William L. Reliquaire. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1987. [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: BV 890 F69 1987]
Scree (magazine). [Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press], 1974- . [Available: Getchell Library, Special Collections: PS 580 .S37]
Weidman, Phil. Second Wind: Selected Poems, 1968-1986. Fallon, NV: Duck Down Press, 1987. [Available: Getchell Library: PS 3573 .E3832 S4 1987]
Biographical Sources & Critical Response:
A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers. New York: Poets & Writers, 2003. [Available: Getchell Library, Reference: REF PS 129 D55 2003-04 ed.]
Hunter, Sevil. "No time to waste: Artist Michael Sarich rushes to complete his work before Parkinson’s disease incapacitates him." Reno Gazette-Journal. (March 21, 2004), P. B10, col. 2. (A quote by Kirk Robertson) [Available: Getchell Library, Reference Microforms: N9]
Olson, Ray. "Just Past Labor Day: Selected & New Poems, 1969-1995 (review)" in Booklist. (Nov. 1996), Vol. 93, no. 5, p. 476.
Please direct questions about this bibliography to Betty Glass.
Please direct questions to Millie Mitchell
Director of Development, University Libraries
University of Nevada, RenoUpdated 29 March 2008